WILMINGTON, Mass. – If hard work and grit are what has been missing from the Bruins’ power play, then head coach Claude Julien and his staff might have just come up with the perfect solution.

Center Gregory Campbell and winger Brad Marchand spent the special-teams portions of today’s practice at Ristuccia Arena on the opposite side of the puck than usual, as the expert penalty-killers joined a new-look second power-play unit with Michael Ryder also up front, and Steven Kampfer and Dennis Seidenberg on the back end.

The other quintet featured Mark Recchi at the left point opposite Zdeno Chara and David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron (before he left to get stitches on his chin) up front. Nathan Horton filled in for Bergeron after the center left the premises.

“I think what you saw is something that you might see. … Maybe we need a little bit more grit. Maybe we need a little more shots from the back end. So we’re going to try to work with that,” Julien, whose team faces Montreal and its fifth-ranked penalty kill tomorrow night, said after today’s practice.

The Bruins obviously need to be more creative with their power-play alignments, and this switch just might do the trick. Boston enters tonight’s action ranked 20th (16.8 percent) in power play efficiency, and the recent numbers have been ugly. The Bruins have gone five games without a power-play goal (0-for-12) and have just one power-play goal in their last seven games (1-for-19).

I’ve often said that a solution to the team’s power-play woes would be to reward the guys that win the battles most often and draw the most penalties from the opposition. That’s where Campbell and Marchand come in. While Marchand was a fixture on the power play down with the Providence (AHL) farm club the last few years, Campbell was used sparingly on the man-advantage by Florida. Although he has centered the fourth line all season, Campbell has shown the hands to score seven goals. And Marchand earned a promotion from the fourth line to the second with his sniping, which has produced 14 goals this season.

Neither has been in the power-play meetings this season except when the entire team has been included.

That’s probably why 30 minutes before the entire team took the ice, the 10 power-play players and two goaltenders were on the ice for extra work. While one group worked at one end under assistant coach Geoff Ward, the other was barked at by Julien and assistant Doug Jarvis. Halfway through the half hour the groups switched.

Although there are some subtleties of the breakout that Marchand and Campbell have to learn, they can mostly transfer over their 5-on-5 style of play to the extra-man game.

“It’ll be fun. It’s obviously a new challenge,” said Marchand. “I think maybe they just want two people to go out there, recover some pucks and take it whenever we can to the net. So we’re going to keep it really simple out there; we’re not going to try to force plays. We’re just going to throw all the pucks we can at the net.”

Said Campbell: “I don’t think there’s a magic formula for me going out there. My job is to recover that puck, to battle for possession and create net-presence. That’s all I can try to bring to the power play.”

As surprising as it might be to see Campbell and Marchand getting power-play time, it’s also a bit unusual to see Recchi stationed so far from the opposing net. The future Hall-of-Fame winger, who played at the point briefly in the early portion of this season, has made his living in the trenches at and around the top of the crease. But Julien and his staff want to sure up other areas that have failed the power play.

“On that power play, we’ve got [Lucic] in front. I think [Lucic] has done a decent job in front,” said Julien “Where we feel we’ve had some issues has been really taking the puck off the wall at the blue line and making plays under pressure. And Mark has been one of those guys, the few times we’ve used him there, he’s been pretty good in that area. So, again, if we don’t try it we’ll never know. And we’re really trying to make our power play be more successful. So when it doesn’t work you’ve got to make changes.”

If you ask me, it’s about time the Bruins came up with an outside-the-box plan to fix their power play. Marching out Horton, Johnny Boychuk and Blake Wheeler a million times, but in different alignments, doesn’t make a lot of sense when they’ve been given numerous opportunities to reward the coaching staff for its faith and failed to produce.

Even if this experiment goes awry (Recchi chasing down a 2-on-1 against could be dangerous), at least the staff is earning its pay with some innovation.

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Rex on the point? He skates like a mini 0ne-on-one! Put him where he belongs, as a target in front of the net. Notice though, Bergy is out there on this combination. He will have to UP his roll to cover for the old guy. Let’s hope Marchy and Soup strike it big on the PP!
Rex worked out on a couple PP goals by swapping out with Horton, cycling the puck. That is when Horton knew where the strings were.

They are way to predictable on the PP, 95% of the time, its a shot from the point, because nobodys skating creating screens on the goalie. Kinda scary that we now have to resort to Cambell on the PP, like his effort but really? over Seguin?

Seguin should definitely be out there. If Seguin’s problems are how he plays defensively, then the PP is the perfect fit. He would have ZERO defensive responsibilities. His speed, creativity, passing ability(which, I don’t know if anyone has noticed, is amazing) and terrific shot are just the thing for the Bs crapola PP

Ben, I don’t think Julien is killing his development. I don’t think anyone came in expecting him to score 25 goals. I would be happy if he finished with 10. He will probably finish with more than Wheeler.

Hard shots are over-rated. Boychuk has either been hitting shins or plexy. You need guys who can receive and dish quick up top. The idea is to get the box moving and open a seam. A bomb is just an added bonus. Kampfer looks good when he’s not taking chances. Otherwise I like Bergy and not much else. Savard could stretch the box from just about anywhere – ain’t no one just gonna fill those shoes. The key for the Bs is having guys skate in, out and through the box (Marchand could be really good at this) – other wise they don’t have too many guys who can stretch it with the pass.

Powerplay works best when the Bs are skating. It sucks when they start standing. Simple as that – I can see a call for grit in front of the net, but Campbell and Marchand a more perimeter players. They may not be as skilled as some – but those two never stop moving. I don’t think that combo will score any goals, but hopefully it will impact the rest of the club just through watching them work so hard.

oof. rex looked pretty… bad at the point earlier this season. he doesn’t have a heavy shot and is not great at keeping the puck in the zone, and doesn’t seem to have the quickness on the backend to prevent odd man shorthanded rushes. He’s great up front on the PP, though.

Boychuk has not played very well this season (I’m a little surprised he hasn’t been the 7th man more often and sharing scratches with Stuart) but his shot is still killer. Giving him some PP time might help give him confidence in his game.

I love the changes up front, but Recchi and Chara looks like a seriously dangerous combination. Those aren’t fast guys. Even leaving aside the risk of shorthanded breakaways, just skating back to recover the puck off of a dump in will cost this team serious power play time!